“Fitting. New York-Stipendium 2016 der Niedersächsischen Sparkassenstiftung und des Landes Niedersachsen” at Kunstverein Göttingen is the first institutional solo exhibition by Berenice Güttler. Güttler, who was the recipient in 2016, will present a series of new works for the first time in Göttingen, some of which were inspired by her time in New York.

“Fitting” examines and constructs the relationship between fabric and the human body. Using the media of drawing and textiles, the artist closes in on a variety of possible entities in relation to social questions, for instance about political history or gender politics. Fabric as an artistic medium is then endowed with a particular function, with the selection of the individual textiles, their color, texture, and surface as well as their history of creation and reference, being a central aspect of Güttler’s practice. She approaches collecting and combining individual elements of fabric in the artistic process with great care and playful ease. The artist makes use of the techniques of sewing, cutting, and drawing, always also working with the history and the influence of textile works on art and everyday life in order to develop works that make statements about our world by means of structure, pattern, material, and weaving techniques. The sculptural works that emerge in this way present abstract states that Güttler has captured in material covers–in the exhibition space above all in “pieces of clothing,” for which she has developed her own presentational forms and displays. The artist thematizes and presents processes of social transformation and states of being that she captures in opaque as well as transparent bodies, thus making them visible. Güttler combines the different materials, exposing the process of creation–from initial pattern to object. Despite her knowledge of and relations to the formal language of tailoring and the fashion industry, Güttler does not present “perfect” completed pieces of clothing, instead only hinting at mechanical manufacturing–for instance by exposing the seams or not cleaning up the raw edges–keeping the fabric works in a fragile, almost unfinished state of uncertainty. The “vests” or “trousers” shown here are not actually pieces of clothing, they are not consumer or everyday objects, but collages that play with the combinatorics of various colors and materials. Güttler lets the colors and forms of the selected works communicate with one another in the exhibition room, thereby creating a sculptural form of “concrete painting.”

The exhibition “Fitting” at Kunstverein Göttingen, which will travel afterwards to the Städtische Galerie Nordhorn, will also include a small catalogue, appearing with the art publisher argobooks.

Berenice Güttler (born in 1984 in Hannover) completed studies in dressmaking and afterwards graduated in independent arts (Freie Kunst) from the HBK Braunschweig. She received her diploma there in 2012 and was a master’s student of Prof. Thomas Rentmeister until 2013. In 2010 she received the Istanbul Residency Grant from the Stiftung Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz and in the 2016 the New York Residency Grant. Berenice Güttler has taken part in numerous international exhibition projects including in Istanbul, Cologne, Hannover, Berlin, and New York.

Das New York-Stipendium wird von der Niedersächsischen Sparkassenstiftung und dem Land Niedersachsen an herausragende Künstlerinnen und und Künstler aus Niedersachsen vergeben.

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